Thanks goes to spike_1790 on livejournal for offering to beta this.

The story is set sometime in the future.

No Way Out

"Now we are finally able to speak, brother." He sat down in the chair across from Loki's, his eyes never leaving the liesmith. "Why?"

He sounded so earnest, so clueless, that Loki wanted to laugh. So he did – hysterically.

Loki may have been helpless with his magic bound and his weapons gone. He may have been caught by Thor and his little companions of SHIELD. They may have cut his hair and taken his clothes, replacing them with dull gray, but his tongue they had not cut out (yet), nor sown his lips shut (again).

"You ask why? Oh, you naïve simpleton." Loki stared at Thor, his eyes shooting daggers. How he wished they were real blades! "Odin betrayed me and for that I hate him! And I hate you for following him like the perfect, stupid son you've always been!"

Thor shook his head. "Why?" He asked again, expression tight with frustration. "Why do you hate us so much, brother?"

"Don't call me that!" Loki snapped angrily. "We were never brothers! Odin lied!"

"He kept it from you because he didn't want you to feel different."

Loki laughed harshly. "But I was different! I strove to be your equal, to show him that I was a worthy son, never knowing that whatever I did, it would never be enough because I wasn't his son! He let me struggle and fight uselessly and never had the gall to tell me how fucking… worthless I was."

He promptly bit his lip, blood welling beneath his teeth from his bottom lip. He should really have stopped talking because he had never meant to reveal this. He hated Odin for his lies, he hated Thor for his glorious ignorance; but he hated himself even more for trusting Odin, for loving Thor so fiercely. Turning his love into hatred had been all too easy and it hadn't even hurt more than ripping out his own heart. It would have been even easier if he had known that frost giants had no heart.

He glared at Thor, daring him to say something, and hating him with even more of a passion for the pitying look on his face. There was nothing his 'brother' could say that would make up for anything.

Thor's head lowered his head, rubbing his hands over his face wearily. Loki didn't think he had seen his brother resort to this gesture before. He couldn't decide whether he should feel gleeful or afraid.

"You were never worthless," Thor denied. Loki's teeth were stained red with blood when he sneered. "I wish things hadn't-"

"Too little, too late, 'brother'," Loki cut him off, voice tainted with disdain.

"I don't believe that!"

Loki took it as an excuse to chortle loudly again.

"You can still change!" The thunder god insisted.

"And you think I want to?" Abruptly, his laughter cut off and he leant forward in his chair, closer to Thor. "Why would I? To please you and your friends? It wouldn't change anything." He glared at the thunder god. "Leave, Thor, and never come back."

Thor looked about to start crying and Loki added it to his list of reasons to hate him. He pretended it was satisfaction on his face when Thor rose from his chair and turned away. Loki itched to leap up and stab him in the back.

At the door, the thunder god turned. "I'll come back," he choked out, voice tight with suppressed tears.

Loki didn't reply. He leant back in his chair when the door closed. He opened his hands, revealing small, crescent shaped wounds on his palms. He idly wondered whether they would cut his fingernails next.

I realize that this idea has been done many times before but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Thank you for reading!